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this autocorrection revealed your identity, Cedar - or maybe I should call you Bolek?... ;-)

the more I read about Parker the more I want to actually play him. he seems to be complex enough to provide some good excuse for me screwing games up ;-)

by the way, how did Taelor manage to kill Sue on turn one?

Damn Android auto-correction...

Parker is somehow both very fun and very frustrating to play. He can move either him or friendly model, cycle few cards or get soulstone, steal his opponent cache or put very nasty conditions on them. If only his push would require, let's say, 5+ instead of 8+ and his upgrades wouldn't force him to discard them when he is using them, he could probably find his niche.

Sue died because Dead Doxy pushed him into center of the table, then dead outlaw shot him for 3 damage, Taelor used companion from trinket and discarded oathkeeper for fast, then she charged Sue and killed him with both attacks (she hit with her second attack so she was able to kill him with this swing).

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The HPE interaction is really powerful: with decent flips I was sitting at 7-8 cards in hand Turn 1. Heither of my opponents were able to actually hurt Parker himself, so basically Marlena fixes this crew.

On a side note, I should ditch the Mad Dog alpha strike and launch him upfield turn 2. I also tried hitting him with desperate merc turn 1 for positives to hit and damage, that didn't really pay off in the long run.

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How is it 30"? Push and walk that's 10", he got 10" reach.
I'm more and more tempted to give Parker another shot

Triple push from Parker (you'll have the cards) is 15", walk from Oath Keeper is 5", then 10" range on the shotgun

I've recently played Parker at a big 2-day tournament and got to Table 1 in the 5th round (beat Zoraida, NB Lucius and Ramos with Parker, tied a game vs Shen Long with Hamelin), but lost to Nico engine and got 4th place.

I got to modify my initial crew according to opponents' choices and scheme pools, so here are my impressions of Parker in a competitive setting (Moscow meta is full of very strong players).

1. Mad Dog is not an auto-include against most opponents: a smart player will spread out, and your gloripus alpha-strike will fail against any decent form of activation control. In most of my games Mad Dog was switched for Hannah, which brings us to

2. Hannah was the MVP of the tournament. She suddenly becomes way more survivable with the metric ton of stones Parker gets. Arcane Reservoir is pure gold. She can copy Emissary's attack or Doc's heal. She gets to shut down some nasty tricks opponents tend to have (Silurids don't leap, Zoraida has to position carefully to Obey without stones, and Powerful Control becomes tricky to execute, Howard Langston can't Decapitate at all etc.) with her Nether Flux Aura. Her damage is negligible, but forcing Horror duels is a really good trick. Take her with Scramble if the board is full of forests and watch your opponents cry.

3. Johan with Scramble is a good substitute for Sue against Neverborn: he's survivable, he's got condition removal and is generally a nuisance.

4. Midnight Stalker is just pure nuts. Use him carefully against summoners, keep him away from masters and henchmen: at the very least he'll draw out opponent's resources because in things like Symbols or Covert Breakthrough they can't let a nearly invincible model run amok in their deployment.

5. Parker's end of activation aura of flipping scheme markers is golden for Guarded Treasure and denying Search.

6. Marlena is not an auto-include unless there's Eliminate in the pool: Parker can take so much punishment with careful positioning it's not even funny.

7. As for upgrades, Black Market, Stick Up and Hidden Steel Plate are the only ones that matter, especially the Plate (which I got to lovingly call "Oven door", courtesy of Marty McFly) because of condition removal. Dynamite is cool, but the range is too short and usually there are no spare AP. Hail could be fun, but, again, Parker's AP are spent generating scheme markers and pushing people around. High Noon could be fun for the ignore trigger, but it doesn't help against Incorporeal, and Parker really isn't into the business of taking down armored targets due to his meh damage track.

On the subject of damage track: going for Empty the Chamber at a key moment can be game-changing, don't be afraid to lose your upgrades if it gets you VP.

8. If you have 8ss to spare in your crew list once you've covered your S&S needs, get Sue. No exceptions.

TL;DR:

Parker can win you tournaments if you play well and pick your schemes right. He's a great control and denial master, even with his stupidly high TNs on the one action that matters.

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that's 3x 8+ and you still need cards for attack. Even with additional cards from emissary i don't belive my luck this much. I've managed to have bad hands with Nico and his card engine

You draw 6 cards per turn, then 3 more from the Emissary, 1 more from Sue. Make it 12 with the SS at the start of your turn -- that's about 23% of your deck. if you haven't drawn a single 8 at this point, your chances of flipping one are exorbitant!

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Emissary requires 2x 7+ for this, so it's not like he gives cards for free. And i know my luck - even with Nicodem, having 12+ cards in hand, i had turns when i had maybe one higher than 10, and then nothing higher than 6. I think i'll try him, but maybe after buying new deck
Have you played against big bad ones, like Sandeep, Hamelin etc?

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Just throwing this out there that in my experience, I’m only reliably cycling cards turns 1 and 2 with the Emissary- after that, you’ll want to use your AP for attacks/ scheming.

Sure, it costs a 7+ to get Trinkets off, but I feel like getting a Trinket and a card is worth cheating a moderate early game, when I’m not gonna be attacking my opponent.

@Seadhna you make an interesting point about using Parkers push- I admittedly have avoided it favor of High Noon, but the cost of High Noon is having me reconsider it. (Also full disclosure- I haven’t played much Faux in the last month or so). I’ll be digging Parker out in a bit and will give some of your tips a try. I’m especialky interested in trying out Hannah.

Other option is to cut 2x desp merc and have three 5/6 ss models (Ronin, dead outlaw, bandido) and one more expensive (sue, Benny etc.). Am I correct?

I see that he plays strong in theme (Cowboys and bandits but no beasts, monsters etc.) and I like it.
To be more precise, I love whole love Parker vibe, but it's so sad to see him in such low tier ☹

Entirely correct (except for the Tier thing, on which I am going to elaborate below)!

I'm also looking to try out the Nothing Beast bomb with Parker (Beast, Scion, Void Wretch) since he has a lot of SS to protect the Beast and is generally card-hungry. Other low-ss options include Oiran for the Wp buff and occasional lure (looking to try it out). I also believe that fitting two 10ss hitters is possible, and will try Bishop with Scramble as a second wave offence (you can't alpha with Bishop, he'll die horribly).

Some friends of mine have also used the rat engine to push activation control on turn 2 (just the Obedient Wretch, you're bound to find a lot of low crows among the 10+ cards you draw Turn 1)

On the tier nonsense:

From a purely mechanical standpoint, Malifaux is in a spot where you either play "honest crews" (i.e. interactive games with 7-9 models per side, lots of back-and-forth exchanges, where the winning side is the one that gets the most value out of their AP) or crazy combo crews that generate value out of the ass (Nico engine, Powerful Control Zoraida, Hamelin, Sandeep, Lucius, Asami, Ramos). In both types of games Parker can stand his own, even though he's way less reliable than say Levi. So there's really only Tier 1 combos or Tier 2 honest masters, especially with the GG18 changes.

Then there's the issue of playstyle: Parker crews rely on strategic movement, never on murdering your opponent's models since the damage output is pretty negligible. You either know how to do it or you don't.

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@Jafar that’s a good summary of a lot of what I’ve experienced, and seen other Parker player so experienced as well. I’m keen to try him with Marlena soon (because she looks really solid) as well as the Desperate Mercs.

16 minutes ago, Seadhna said:

On the tier nonsense:

From a purely mechanical standpoint, Malifaux is in a spot where you either play "honest crews" (i.e. interactive games with 7-9 models per side, lots of back-and-forth exchanges, where the winning side is the one that gets the most value out of their AP) or crazy combo crews that generate value out of the ass (Nico engine, Powerful Control Zoraida, Hamelin, Sandeep, Lucius, Asami, Ramos). In both types of games Parker can stand his own, even though he's way less reliable than say Levi. So there's really only Tier 1 combos or Tier 2 honest masters, especially with the GG18 changes.

Then there's the issue of playstyle: Parker crews rely on strategic movement, never on murdering your opponent's models since the damage output is pretty negligible. You either know how to do it or you don't.

^ This, every time. Compared to other games I’ve played, the disparity in “tier” beteeen masters and models in Malifaux is small. Player skill is such a huge part of the game, both at crew selection and actual gameplay.

How do you guys generally use the Trinket upgrades? What’s going on with the synergies there?

I've never gotten any value out of Taelor, she's quite fragile and with only 2 AP she's extremely easy to control for a 10ss beater. Try Hannah, you'll get her extra card and staying power and an extra attack off the Emissary/extra heal off Doc, plus the no suits aura is just great.

Also, with only 6 models you'll have to kill everything to reliably score, which is tough with Parker crews.

As for trinkets, my top choices are:

Regen on Sue (for Hurt) or Hannah

Don't Mind Me on either a 3-inch engage model or a spare backline minion for surprise Interacts

Monkey Paw on Big Jake (never actually pulled this off yet)

Companion on Mad Dog or any other beater Parker can push and chain activate

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I also believe that fitting two 10ss hitters is possible, ﻿and will try Bishop with Scramble as a second wave offence (you can't alpha with Bishop, he'll die horribly).

Some friends of mine have also used the rat engine to push activation control on turn 2 (just the Obedient Wretch, you're bound to find a lot of low crows among the 10+ cards you draw Turn 1)

When you say two 10SS hitters, are you saying on top of also taking HPE? Something like Parker and 3SS of upgrades, Doc (3SS), HPE(10SS), then 20SS of hitters and spending the remaining 14SS on activations?

Also, not that I doubt it, but what is leading to the 10+ cards drawn on the first turn?

I am just getting back into playing after a few months out and I am not really feeling Jack, Leve or Viks so I will be focussing on Parker and Von Schill, so any insight to playing Parker in GG2018 and with wave 4 would be greatly appreciated!

Is the shell of your crew Parker (Black Market, Stick Up, Hidden Steel Plate), Doc, HPE, 10SS hitter and then season to taste (presumably with one of the 8SS Outcast all-stars)?

Has Benny played much of a role in your crews? I remember when book 4 came out (just about when I stopped playing - I picked up Talos and Midnight Stalker and then didn't really get any games in...) I didn't see him much past a Hamelin crew.

Two final questions! Do you find you need to maximise activations to get the most out of the Midnight Stalker, or is he just fine around 7 or 8 activations? And does Talos have any play in the crew as a slightly cheaper beater?

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When you say two 10SS hitters, are you saying on top of also taking HPE? Something like Parker and 3SS of upgrades, Doc (3SS), HPE(10SS), then 20SS of hitters and spending the remaining 14SS on activations?

Also, not that I doubt it, but what is leading to the 10+ cards drawn on the first turn?

I am just getting back into playing after a few months out and I am not really feeling Jack, Leve or Viks so I will be focussing on Parker and Von Schill, so any insight to playing Parker in GG2018 and with wave 4 would be greatly appreciated!

Is the shell of your crew Parker (Black Market, Stick Up, Hidden Steel Plate), Doc, HPE, 10SS hitter and then season to taste (presumably with one of the 8SS Outcast all-stars)?

Has Benny played much of a role in your crews? I remember when book 4 came out (just about when I stopped playing - I picked up Talos and Midnight Stalker and then didn't really get any games in...) I didn't see him much past a Hamelin crew.

Two final questions! Do you find you need to maximise activations to get the most out of the Midnight Stalker, or is he just fine around 7 or 8 activations? And does Talos have any play in the crew as a slightly cheaper beater?

Yes, that's on top of the HPE and a perfect summary of most of my Parker crews (I take Oath Keeper instead of place in case I flip the BJ on Discount so I can get a stone Turn 2). I also always take 2 Desperate Mercs for activation contol and to round up my crew to 8 models.

For the "2 beaters" just pick the 2 out of our best models according to schemes&strats: Mad Dog, Rusty Alyce, Hannah (she gets a second chance in Parker due to lots of SS really pushing up her survivability, learn so spend a stone on positives to defence and negatives to damage), Montresor (same as Hannah, also infinitely better with the cheap Scramble), Sue, Benny, Marlena, Stalker, Johan.

Bishop, Talos and Nothing Beast are questionable picks due to their relative fragility (never got much value out of them in a Parker crew).

As for Stalker, you just need to play him really safe and hide behind terrain against summoning crews.

As for cards, Hannah draws 1, Sue draws 1, HPE draws 3 more Turn 1.

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Stalker has generally got me 3vp every game and usually a kill or two. If he had bonnet trinket I don't think anything but luck and focused effort could bring him down and stop him. And that would allow the rest of the crew an easier time.

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Yes, that's on top of the HPE and a perfect summary of most of my Parker crews (I take Oath Keeper instead of place in case I flip the BJ on Discount so I can get a stone Turn 2). I also always take 2 Desperate Mercs for activation contol and to round up my crew to 8 models.

For the "2 beaters" just pick the 2 out of our best models according to schemes&strats: Mad Dog, Rusty Alyce, Hannah (she gets a second chance in Parker due to lots of SS really pushing up her survivability, learn so spend a stone on positives to defence and negatives to damage), Montresor (same as Hannah, also infinitely better with the cheap Scramble), Sue, Benny, Marlena, Stalker, Johan.

Bishop, Talos and Nothing Beast are questionable picks due to their relative fragility (never got much value out of them in a Parker crew).

As for Stalker, you just need to play him really safe and hide behind terrain against summoning crews.

As for cards, Hannah draws 1, Sue draws 1, HPE draws 3 more Turn 1.

Right on man, thanks! I think I will need to pick up a box of Depserate Mercs sooner rather than later! I have to say, having them at 3SS is so nice for Outcasts - I always felt pretty vulnerable going in with 7 models, and having a ead cheap minion (even if they are nothing more than meat...) makes quite the difference I would suspect.

I am a big Hannah fan - in the past I have taken her way more than I ought to have done! I STILL haven't got round to trying out Montressor since he got errated! He just never seems to fit

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In games like Symbols or Stake a Claim you just slam Pretty Floral Bonnet onto her and push her up the table Turn 1. HtW is great because you'll have a lot of spare SS for prevention, not spending them on to damage.

The hazardous aura is brutal against model spam.

The attack is meh, but at this point she's just a glorified 10SS scheme runner with Wk 7.

This works. Try it. (bonus points for your opponent's tears if they play Gremlins)

With Hannah and Engineer we play at 8 cards, we have 11 cards turn 1 without using SS, a 6 and a 7 lets Hannah copy Emissary's action to attach Monkey Paw to the Emissary itself for an emergency card draw mid-game.

That's the core I'm inclined to bring every game.

Then we have Wrath: with SS he's going to not die horribly immediately, plus he buffs Hannah's damage to min 4 against upgraded models (and with IPB there's a good chance for a moderate 6 with a blast 4). Plus he can heal himself, has baseline Wk 6 for Job's Not Done and positives on a charge. I really think he might be playable in this crew.